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Yoshi, Main Character or Sidekick

Yoshi the little green dinosaur debuted in 1990 as a supporting rideable character in Super Mario World. He was likable enough to warrant his own spin on puzzle games and even light gun game shortly following. In the latter you are playing from the point of view and as the series mainstay of Mario, riding Yoshi while firing a gun.

1995 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island premiered and reversed that relationship very quickly. Yoshi was the playable character and baby Mario was just a form of regenerative health. He quested out to save the day, fighting many villains to get Mario safely home.

Multiple follow ups to that story have been pushed out starring Yoshi, such as Yoshi Touch and Go, Yoshi New Island, and Yoshi Story. Yoshi has also taken on the main role in some unique craft style games (similar to Kirby’s Yarn World) in Yoshi Wooly World and the recently released Yoshi Crafted World. Though these last two titles utilize low difficulty in efforts to provide the cute character to a wider audience.

In addition to these lead roles, he has been a playable character in nearly all the Mario sport, kart, and party titles. Even appearing in the long running Super Smash Bros series as someone who can brawl with the best of them. However he remains Mario’s loyal ride in the NEW Super Mario Bros series as well as making the appearance in Mario Odyssey.

Also the question is brought up, Yoshi is the species, in some Mario games they are as frequent as a 1up Mushroom. Does this mean we truly do not even know the character “Yoshi”? Based on dialog in the games, his species is not a hive mind, so does that mean there are different personality Yoshis? Is there a singular Yoshi that guest stars in all of other games or is it just one of the Yoshi species?

If it was true that he was less of an individual, would that change your opinion on if he is a main character or not? I am sure it doesn’t, who couldn’t love this adorable dinosaur?